Terrific Writer

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/25/fanboys-triumphant-kevin-spacey-crashes-fan-movie-awards/

Smack dab in the middle of the Fan Movie Challenge Awards, Steve Sansweet invited a special guest to the stage: director Kyle Newman, who has weathered a tumultous journey in the creation of his movie, Fanboys. Newman was remarkably civil in discussing the trials and tribulations of the making of the movie, and before his portion on stage ended, he surprised the assembled audience by inviting Fanboys producer Kevin Spacey to the stage. Later that night, the first 300 attendees of the Fan Movie Challenge Awards attended an exclusive screening of Fanboys.

What follows is a transcript of the Fanboys portion of the Fan Movies presentation, hosted by Steve Sansweet, Head of Fan Relations.

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http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/25/the-2008-fan-movie-challenge-winners/

Atom  and Lucasfilm once again filled a massive ballroom at Comic-Con International with fans eager to see who the champions are in the 7th Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. The event began with Steve Sansweet, Head of Fan Relations, taking the stage.

“Things change so rapidly in the media and online world that the fact that Atom has been around for a decade is a tribute to its flexibility,” said Sansweet. “Star Wars and its creator has always had a sense of humor and a willingness to let those inspired by Star Wars to play in the galaxy’s biggest sandbox.”

Just before the ceremony started, though, Sansweet screened a “last minute” entry supposedly hand-delivered to him moments before: A crude — yet hilarious — collection of lightsaber battles by Dino DeMilio and, from “Heroes,” Milo Ventimiglia.

“When Star Wars came out 31 years ago, there was no Internet, or even personal computers, but fans wanted — needed — an outlet for their creative juices. Back then, there were fanzines and an almost instant-cult parody film called Hardware Wars, and years later, a not so small professional parody film, Spaceballs… And then came Troops, Kevin Rubio’s breakthrough fan movie, and a whole new generation was inspired to use the digital tools that had been developed by George Lucas and Steve Jobs. Unlike some companies, who shall remain nameless here, who don’t like fans messing around with their properties, Lucasfilm encouraged it. After all, George Lucas is an independent filmmaker like some of you in the audience.”

The following are the winning entries in the 2008 Fan Movie Challenge:

Best Parody: Michael Ramova, for Star Wars Grindhouse, Don’t Go In The Endor Woods. (Award presented by Tina Santamaros, the Acquisition Manager for Atom.)

Best Comedy: Will Carlough, for Paraphrase Theater  (Award presented by Mary Franklin, Events Manager for Lucasfilm)

Best Creature / Character Makeup: Lou Klein, for Contract of Evil (Award presented by Josh Kushins, Lucasfilm Publicity Manager)

Best Short Subject: Oliver Jones, for The Empire Strikes Back in 60 Seconds (Award presented by Director of Lucas Online, Bill Gannon)

Best Animation:  Jimmy “Mac” McInerney, Kay Minckiewicz, Mark Minckiwewicz, Jason Swank for George Lucas Hip-Hop Awards (Award presented by Dave Filoni, Director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Best Visual Effects: Ryan Wieber and Michael Scott for Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 (Award presented by Trey Stokes and Renee O’ Conner)

Audience Choice Award: Jimmy “Mac” McInerney, Kay Minckiewicz, Mark Minckiwewicz, Jason Swank for George Lucas Hip-Hop Awards (Award presented by Fanboys Director Kyle Newman)

George Lucas Selects Award: Robert Reeves for Padmé. (Award introduced by Lucasfilm Vice President of Marketing, Distribution and Online at Lucasfilm, Doug Yates, and via video, George Lucas)

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/24/501st-legion-charity-quilt-project/

For the past year devouted Star Wars fan and craftster Terri Fontana-Hodges has been collecting patches from Garrisons, Detachments and Squads of the 501st Legion from all over the world. The purpose, to create a unique quilt to help raise money for the Make A Wish foundation.

The quilt features 91 different patches from all over the globe,
including some of the rarest patches created. A few that should be
pointed out:

The Rose Bowl Parade patch
The Celebration IV patch
The Japanese garrison
The Israeli Garrison
Saudi Arabia Garrison
Holmes Trooper patch
The Patch Girl patch
(made in limited quantities by the Golden Gate Garrison for raising funds and patches for the project)
as well as a number of special events and Memorial patches.

These patches are not offered to the general public and many are hard or near impossible to get by even members of the Legion.

The Quilt will be on display at the 501st legion booth during San Diego Comic-Con July 24-27 and the auction ends on the evening of July 26. ALL proceeds go to The Make A Wish Foundation.

Check out the charity auction here:
501st Charity Patch Quilt

 Wow.  Took a walk.  It was too damn hot.  If I was an ice cream bar, I'd be SO dead.

For the past year devouted Star Wars fan and craftster Terri Fontana-Hodges has been collecting patches from Garrisons, Detachments and Squads of the 501st Legion from all over the world. The purpose, to create a unique quilt to help raise money for the Make A Wish foundation.

The quilt features 91 different patches from all over the globe,
including some of the rarest patches created. A few that should be
pointed out:

The Rose Bowl Parade patch
The Celebration IV patch
The Japanese garrison
The Israeli Garrison
Saudi Arabia Garrison
Holmes Trooper patch
The Patch Girl patch
(made in limited quantities by the Golden Gate Garrison for raising funds and patches for the project)
as well as a number of special events and Memorial patches.

These patches are not offered to the general public and many are hard or near impossible to get by even members of the Legion.

The Quilt will be on display at the 501st legion booth during San Diego Comic-Con July 24-27 and the auction ends on the evening of July 26. ALL proceeds go to The Make A Wish Foundation.

Check out the charity auction here:
501st Charity Patch Quilt

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/24/clone-wars-exclusives-and-swag-at-starwarsshop-booth/

Senate Security Clone Trooper exclusive figure

If you’re in San Diego this weekend for Comic-Con, make sure to stop by the StarWarsShop booth where exclusives and swag galore await! There’s the exclusive Senate Security Clone Trooper action figure along with several others being revealed at Comic-Con this weekend.

Swag found at the StarWarsShop/Zazzle booths

And, of course, there’s the swag. Visitors to the StarWarsShop and Zazzle booths have already taken home five wonderful new Clone Wars exclusive prints, a plastic clone mask, and six different exclusive campaign buttons featuring various Clone Wars and Star Wars characters. These are the must-have freebies for Comic-Con — make sure to stop by and pick some up!

More pics after the jump –

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http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/24/koto-unveils-clone-wars-artfx-series/

Kotobukiya officially unveiled their new Clone Wars ArtFx series at Celebration Japan last week, but now they’ve got them here stateside in San Diego at their Comic-Con booth. Here are a handful of catalog images they were kind enough to share with us during the event — check out more after the jump!

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The previews are up for the new Windlass costume replicas at Comic Con this weekend. There's a ROTJ Luke outfit, ROTS Obi-Wan, and two Padmé/Amidala get ups. No price tag yet, though!

Previews here. (The next 3 photos exhibit the other costumes)

Natalie Portman was a guest judge on "Project Runway" tonight!

She was also was promoting her new eco-friendly shoe line.

Just thought I'd share... :)

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/23/star-wars-everywhere-on-comic-con-preview-night/

Preview night at the Star Wars Pavilion at San Diego’s Comic-Con opened this evening, and we’ve got over a hundred pics showcasing many of the items being unveiled!

Highlights include StarWarsShop’s exclusive Clone Trooper Senate Security action figure (plus some impressive Clone Wars swag pieces they’re giving away), the Clone Wars full-size Indy car, Hasbro’s Clone Wars and Indiana Jones collections, some INCREDIBLE Sideshow entries including a Wampa attacking a tauntaun (!!!), the new Frames book set with image selection by George Lucas, eFX’s McQuarrie Darth Vader helmet, Ahsoka Tano’s lightsaber, Obi-Wan’s “Extreme Edition” lightsaber with revealed interior, Windlass’s replica Star Wars costume collection and much, much more!

Make sure to head on over to our image series for a sneak peek at what Comic-Con Premiere Night attendees are viewing right now!

I am uber organised. I think I get it from my mum, shes always writing lists, in fact she has a book completely dedicated to her lists of things to do. I am going away to a festival tomorrow and I have finished packing this morning, the only things left to go in are my pills and toothbrush.

Am really looking forward to the above festival, I have been going every year for as long as I remember. But somehow I remember babyslugs telling me how awsome it is before I went for the first time... odd

Am tired now, shall go back to work... once I have checked the weather...

I Love these guys

The Vader Project in Japan
Photos and words: Bonnie Burton

The Vader Project, an exhibit featuring the reimagined visions of the iconic Darth Vader helmet by some of today's hottest pop and underground artists, is currently on display July 19-21, 2008 at Star Wars Celebration Japan -- at Makuhari-Messe in Chiba just outside Tokyo to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars.

The Vader Project is curated by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys. Kelemer and Marks gathered close to 100 of the hottest underground and pop surrealist painters, artists and toy designers to participate. Each artist was given a 1:1 scale authentic prop replica of the actual Darth Vader helmet used in the Star Wars films. Each helmet served as a blank canvas for each artist to paint, design, mash up, and customize.

To kick off Celebration Japan's display of The Vader Project, I chatted with curator Dov Kelemer about the new additions to the lineup.

Why did you decide to bring The Vader Project to Celebration Japan?
Another Celebration was planned in Japan and based on its past popularity Lucasfilm and the show promoters asked Sarah Jo and I to take the show over to Japan.



How many helmets will be featured in the exhibit for Celebration Japan?
All of it... should be around 95 pieces total including a little more than a dozen new pieces from Japanese based artists. The show keeps getting bigger and it's getting harder and harder to send it around the world so this is probably going to be pretty close to complete.

How did you go about deciding which Japanese artists best suited the exhibit?
It's always a difficult choice as there are so many great artists out there in Japan. We decided to stick to the game plan of featuring artists who are somehow involved in the underground art world with an emphasis on the art toy designers. There are so many great toy designers in Japan and we got some of the best I think. Bounty Hunter (BXH) was really a great addition because they were one of the first to create designer vinyl toys in this new art toy movement.

What are you most excited about in showing your exhibit at Celebration Japan?
It's always great to see the crowd's reaction. When we first showed the exhibit for C4 in Los Angeles we could never have anticipated the overwhelmingly positive response that the show received. So we are very excited to present the show to the Japanese Star Wars community.

Additional comments?
Darth Vader and Jedi in particular are based on the Samurai so it will be great to see what these new Japanese artists and designers decide to do with their new canvas.

Click here to learn more about The Vader Project.

Be sure to check out all the photos from the exhibit here:
PHOTOS: The Vader Project at Celebration Japan



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SOURCE: Official Starwars.com Blog

(photo by Bonnie Burton)

Words: Bonnie Burton

Chances are if you attended Celebration Japan, you got to climb onto the full-size dewback created by Japanese Garrison member Goro Inoue and his dedicated crew which include Kayo Saeki, Ruriko Tsutsumi, Yayoi Negishi, Otoe Takahashi, Jun Agata, Daisuke Togami, Takatoshi Makiuchi, Masaaki Fukada, Kakuyuki Yamazaki, Hiroshi Shounai, Keisuke Aiso, and Masaru Sato; with special thanks to Mish'al Samman, Takefumi Tenshima, Toshio Fujisawa, Toshiki and Kaori Komiya, Art Andrews, Kazuhisa Kawahara, Takeshi Ogawa, Mary Frankin, Steve Sansweet, the Dented Helmet, the 501st Legion and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Walking past the dewback, I spied everyone from little kids and their parents, to fans dressed as Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi, among others. The dewback always had a long of people eager to get the photo op of a lifetime.

I chatted with Goro about his fantastic creation, and what prompted him to donate his blood, sweat and money to The Dewback Project.

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Got my 200th bird species of the year today, the earliest I've ever managed it.

It was, embarrassingly, a green sandpiper. Though earlier today a farmer with an unseasonable hoopoe in his farmyard who (apparently) remembered an old 'To the Manor Born' episode saw a nice opportunity for profit. And was astonished when, just an hour, after he put the info on a twitchers' hotline, about one person every 2 miutes was arriving in his farmyard. Free money for farmer, nice tick for me. And one of my VERY EMBARRASSING (TM) life list hole plugged.

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/21/celebration-japan-the-dewback-project/

(photo by Bonnie Burton)

Words: Bonnie Burton

Chances are if you attended Celebration Japan, you got to climb onto the full-size dewback created by Japanese Garrison member Goro Inoue and his dedicated crew which include Kayo Saeki, Ruriko Tsutsumi, Yayoi Negishi, Otoe Takahashi, Jun Agata, Daisuke Togami, Takatoshi Makiuchi, Masaaki Fukada, Kakuyuki Yamazaki, Hiroshi Shounai, Keisuke Aiso, and Masaru Sato; with special thanks to Mish’al Samman, Takefumi Tenshima, Toshio Fujisawa, Toshiki and Kaori Komiya, Art Andrews, Kazuhisa Kawahara, Takeshi Ogawa, Mary Frankin, Steve Sansweet, the Dented Helmet, the 501st Legion and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Walking past the dewback, I spied everyone from little kids and their parents, to fans dressed as Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi, among others. The dewback always had a long of people eager to get the photo op of a lifetime.

I chatted with Goro about his fantastic creation, and what prompted him to donate his blood, sweat and money to The Dewback Project.

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http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/20/golden-memories-anthony-daniels-reflections/

It has been 30 years since I first stood on a lonely planet, Tatooine, and I said the opening lines of the first Star Wars movie ever. “Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor! We’ll be destroyed for sure!” Well, nobody got destroyed and we went on to go five more movies, and I got the honor of saying the last line in the last movie. Do you remember what that one is? “Oh no!”

(photo by Bonnie Burton)

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Hello :)

I have a question - does anybody know where I could look for people who role play SW via livejournal, or people who would be interested in it? I play in a panfandom game on LJ and we're looking for more players to join us with SW characters, but I have no idea where to go looking.

Any suggestions?

Thank you! ♥

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/07/20/celebration-japan-the-lair-of-takeuchi/

“One of the things we wanted to do in The Clone Wars is bring a new look, something different to Star Wars,” says director Dave Filoni. “George Lucas talked early on about having an anime influence. Well, rather than just have an influence, we flew all the way to Japan and worked with Production I.G., bringing one of their really great artists, Atsushi Takeuchi, right into The Clone Wars.”

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